PA School Prerequisites & Admission Requirements Guide

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Most PA programs require an undergraduate bachelor's degree, 12 common prerequisite courses identified by the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) Curriculum Report 4 across 234 surveyed programs, and a minimum GPA that typically sits at 3.00 in the CASPA Program Directory. According to the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA), most programs also require at least 1,000 hours of Healthcare Experience (HCE) or direct Patient Care Experience (PCE), and entering students average about three years of healthcare experience. You submit your coursework and clinical hours through CASPA, which represents 95% of accredited PA programs and takes up to four weeks to verify your application once it is complete. Sources: AAPA: Become a PA (Prerequisites and Certification), AAPA: PA School Application Checklist and Timeline, AAPA: 6 Steps to Become a PA. Last checked November 7, 2026.

The 12 common PA school prerequisite courses

Every PA program sets its own course requirements. PAEA does not regulate admission requirements or decide who is eligible to apply to any program. In PAEA's Curriculum Report 4, which surveyed 234 PA programs, 12 prerequisite courses were common across many programs. Beginning with the 2022-23 CASPA cycle, PAEA published this list as the official CASPA Common Prerequisites list:

Anatomy
Physiology (often listed with Anatomy as Anatomy and Physiology)
Biochemistry
Biology (general)
Biology (microbiology)
Chemistry (general)
Chemistry (organic)
English Composition/Writing
Genetics
Medical Terminology
Psychology (general)
Statistics

Additional prerequisite policies and in-progress courses

Beyond those 12 courses, the AAPA notes that some PA programs require ethics or physics, which might not be required for your undergraduate degree. Programs also set different rules for prerequisites still in progress when you apply. Some programs accept you contingent upon completing those classes, and you should update your schools as you finish them. Check each program's page in the CASPA Program Directory before you register.

Once you meet all minimum prerequisites to be considered for an interview, Confetto, an AI mock interviewer for PA, medical, and healthcare program interviews, lets you practice traditional, panel, and MMI scenarios out loud. Start your free week.

Degree requirements and program accreditation

To practice as a PA in the United States, you must graduate from an entry-level PA program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) and pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE), administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). As of August 2026, PAEA reports there are 335 accredited PA programs in the United States, located at medical schools, hospitals, two- and four-year colleges and universities, and in the military.

Most entry-level PA programs require an undergraduate bachelor's degree before you matriculate, which the AAPA notes generally takes about four years, though some future PAs take an extra year to finish prerequisites. Most professional PA programs run about 27 months (3 academic years), award a master's degree, and include classroom instruction plus more than 2,000 hours of clinical rotations. Some PA programs also offer a 4- to 6-year pre-professional phase for recent high school graduates and students with some college credit, combining undergraduate core coursework with the professional phase.

According to the ARC-PA, a developing program cannot matriculate students until granted Provisional Accreditation. Probation is a temporary active accreditation status initially lasting not less than two years (extendable by the ARC-PA for up to an additional two years). Because probation is an active accreditation status, students who enter a program on probation enter an accredited program, and PANCE eligibility requires completing a program that was accredited when you matriculated.

PA school minimum GPA requirements and CASPA GPA rules

According to the AAPA, you must meet all minimum prerequisites to be considered for an interview. In the 2026-2027 CASPA Program Directory, PAEA groups programs into four minimum GPA filter brackets: 2.5 to 2.99, 3.0 to 3.19, 3.2 and above, and No GPA minimum required. Programs set separate cutoffs for Overall GPA, Prerequisite GPA, and Science GPA.

Published minimums in the 2026-2027 CASPA Program Directory range from 2.00 for Prerequisite GPA at programs such as PCOM, Saint Louis University, SUNY Upstate, Temple, and the University of Arizona up to 3.50 at Baldwin Wallace University (Overall and Science GPA) and Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences (Overall, Prerequisite, and Science GPA).

PAEA warns that your CASPA GPA is likely to differ from your college transcript GPA. CASPA calculates your GPA and breaks it down into several types, including GPA by year, GPA by course subject category, and science versus non-science GPA. You must enter all completed coursework from every US and English-speaking Canadian college or university attended, including high school college credits and study abroad institutions. Per PAEA's CASPA Application Tips, you cannot leave out:

Repeated classes
Failed classes
Gym classes
Ungraded labs that appear on your transcripts
Courses that seem irrelevant to PA school

GPA Type	Lowest Minimum Listed	Highest Minimum Listed
Overall GPA	2.75 (including Brenau, Rosalind Franklin, University of Kentucky, and South College campuses)	3.50 (Baldwin Wallace University, Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences)
Prerequisite GPA	2.00 (including PCOM, Saint Louis University, SUNY Upstate, Temple, and University of Arizona)	3.50 (Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences)
Science GPA	2.75 (including Brenau, Rosalind Franklin, and South College campuses)	3.50 (Baldwin Wallace University, Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences)

Patient Care Experience (PCE) vs. Healthcare Experience (HCE) hours

Most PA programs require at least 1,000 hours of Healthcare Experience (HCE) or Patient Care Experience (PCE), according to the AAPA. The AAPA notes that 2,000 hours equals about one year of full-time work, and most PA students have about three years of healthcare experience before entering a program.

CASPA has nine experience categories: PCE, HCE, shadowing, non-healthcare employment, leadership, teaching, volunteer, research, and extracurricular activities. You must provide an accurate audit differentiating your HCE and PCE hours.

While CASPA's guidelines list CNA and medical assistant under HCE, the AAPA notes that many individual PA programs overrule CASPA's determination and count CNA and medical assistant hours as PCE. On its Become a PA page, the AAPA lists medical assistant, emergency medical technician, paramedic, medic or medical corpsman, lab assistant/phlebotomist, registered nurse, emergency room technician, surgical tech, and certified nursing assistant as common ways to gain hands-on patient care experience. Because CASPA places the responsibility on you to use your best judgment, check each program's website before categorizing your hours, and update schools directly as you log new hours or certifications.

CASPA Clinical Experience Definitions and Examples (Source: AAPA PA School Application Checklist)
Category	Official CASPA Definition	Examples Listed by AAPA / CASPA
Patient Care Experience (PCE)	Experiences in which you are directly responsible for a patient's care.	Prescribing medication, performing procedures, directing a course of treatment, designing a treatment regimen, or actively working on patients as a nurse, paramedic, EMT, phlebotomist, physical therapist, or dental hygienist.
Healthcare Experience (HCE)	Paid and unpaid work in a health-related field where you are not directly responsible for a patient's care, though you may still have patient interaction.	Filling prescriptions, performing clerical work, delivering patient food, cleaning patients and/or their rooms, administering food or medication, taking vitals or other record-keeping information, and working as a scribe, CNA, or medical assistant (note: many programs overrule CASPA and count CNA and medical assistant as PCE).
Shadowing	Time spent officially following and observing a healthcare professional at work.	Observing a PA (physician associate/physician assistant is most preferred), or shadowing an MD or NP across multiple specialties.

How CASPA verifies coursework and clinical hours

CASPA is administered by PAEA and represents 95% of currently accredited PA programs. The annual CASPA cycle opens on the last Thursday in April and closes on April 1 of the following year (in 2024, it opened on April 25). Submit your application as soon as your sections are done, without waiting for transcripts or letters to arrive. However, your file does not enter the verification queue until CASPA marks it complete.

According to PAEA, a CASPA application is complete only when you have submitted it and CASPA has received your application payment, all official transcripts from every US and English-speaking Canadian college and university attended (plus original foreign transcript evaluations, if applicable), and at least two of your three letters of recommendation. Verification then takes up to four weeks, after which CASPA emails your official application to your designated programs and is no longer involved in the process. PAEA advises completing your application at least four weeks before your earliest deadline, and the AAPA recommends applying in June or July for programs with rolling admissions.

CASPA is only authorized to accept official transcripts sent directly from a registrar's office. Transcripts issued to, picked up by, or mailed by you, even in an official unopened envelope, are rejected. Use the CASPA transcript request form or ask your registrar to print "CASPA" and your full CASPA ID number on the transcript, and list all former names under personal information so documents match your file. Avoid these four coursework entry errors that PAEA says cause significant processing delays:

Listing all coursework under a single term instead of dividing it into separate terms.
Failing to convert credits from a school that uses a unit system.
Entering letter grades when your official transcript lists numeric grades.
Listing transfer credit as it appears on the receiving school's transcript, instead of ordering an official transcript from the original college where you took the class.

Standardized entrance exams: GRE vs. PA-CAT

While some PA schools no longer require a standardized entrance exam, the AAPA states that most programs still require one. The CASPA Program Directory filters schools by CASPer, GRE (will accept MCAT), GRE (will not accept MCAT), PA-CAT, MCAT, TOEFL, and IELTS. According to the AAPA, you should take standardized tests 3 to 6 months before applying so you have time to retake the exam if needed.

For the GRE, PAEA instructs you to enter each program's GRE code on the ETS website so official scores report directly into CASPA. Send official paper TOEFL scores to CASPA, and send all other test results directly to the PA program.

GRE vs. PA-CAT Comparison (Source: AAPA PA School Application Checklist)
Feature	GRE (Graduate Record Examinations)	PA-CAT (Physician Assistant College Admission Test)
What it tests	Verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills.	Typical PA prerequisite subjects: anatomy, physiology, general biology, general and organic chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, behavioral sciences, genetics, and statistics.
When introduced	Traditionally the preferred PA entrance test.	Introduced in 2020 specifically for PA programs.
Exam fee	$205 base cost (a fee reduction program is available for qualified applicants).	$228 exam cost.
Score report fee	$27 per program that requires a GRE score.	Check directly with your program for reporting instructions.

Letters of recommendation, personal statement, and CASPA fees

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Letters of recommendation typically come from professors, supervisors, physicians, and PAs, according to the AAPA. Confirm each program's exact letter requirements before entering a reference in CASPA, because CASPA sends the email request immediately. Per PAEA's CASPA Application Tips, once a reference author begins a request, that reference cannot be removed for the entire cycle, even before you submit.

The CASPA personal statement is a 5,000-character essay explaining why you chose to become a PA and why you should be considered. Once you submit your CASPA application, you cannot edit your essay, and while you can add new PA programs to your designations, you cannot remove programs already selected. According to PAEA, a limited number of CASPA fee waivers are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and each fee waiver covers the application cost for the first two programs ($185 for the first program and $65 for the second, for a total of $250).

Checklist: 8 steps to verify your PA pre reqs and submit CASPA on time

We built this step-by-step plan from the AAPA and PAEA checklists so you can move from choosing classes to a verified CASPA file without avoidable delays.

1. Map the 12 common prerequisites against your target programs in the CASPA Program Directory, checking each school's minimum Overall, Prerequisite, and Science GPA and in-progress course rules.
2. Audit your clinical hours across PCE, HCE, and PA shadowing, and check each school's policy if you worked as a CNA or medical assistant.
3. Take the GRE ($205 plus $27 per score report) or PA-CAT ($228) 3 to 6 months before applying.
4. Order official transcripts directly from the registrar of every US and English-speaking Canadian institution attended as soon as CASPA opens on the last Thursday in April.
5. Enter every completed course term-by-term on CASPA, including repeated, failed, gym, and ungraded lab classes, matching transcript grades and converted unit credits.
6. Confirm your recommenders meet each school's rules before entering them in CASPA, ensuring at least two of three letters arrive four weeks before your earliest deadline.
7. Proofread your 5,000-character personal statement and submit CASPA with payment (aiming for June or July for rolling programs, and at least four weeks before your earliest deadline).
8. Check the My Status menu and your CASPA application inbox until all transcripts and at least two letters arrive and CASPA completes verification (up to four weeks).

How prerequisites and clinical hours come up in your PA interview

While you wait several weeks to months for interview invitations after submitting, the AAPA recommends practicing mock interview questions and reviewing your course notes. In PAEA's Student Report 6 (published February 2025 from the 2022 Matriculating Student Survey), 91.6% of matriculating students cited the desire to care for patients as a reason for becoming a PA, followed by mobility within PA specialties and work-life balance.

Below is a practice question on clinical and academic readiness with our team's example answer. To practice out loud with follow-up questions on your own CASPA experiences, Confetto runs AI mock interviews for PA applicants in MMI, traditional, and panel formats. Start your free week.

Practice question

Walk me through how your direct patient care experience and science prerequisites have prepared you for the pace of a 27-month PA curriculum.

See an example answer

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented. For the past two years, I have worked full-time as an emergency room technician, logging about 4,000 hours of hands-on patient care while finishing my upper-level prerequisites at night. Last fall, I was taking Biochemistry and Microbiology with lab while working three 12-hour shifts a week. One night in the emergency department, I performed an EKG and drew labs on a patient in septic shock, then went home the next morning and studied bacterial endotoxins and metabolic pathways for my microbiology exam. Seeing the physiology at the bedside made the textbook material stick, and managing a 36-hour workweek alongside two lab sciences forced me to build a strict daily study schedule. I know PA school compresses classroom instruction and more than 2,000 hours of clinical rotations into 27 months. Working full-time while completing my science prerequisites showed me how to study efficiently when I am tired, ask questions early when I do not understand a mechanism, and connect classroom science directly to the patient in front of me.

It names a concrete clinical role and hour total, connects two specific CASPA common prerequisites (Biochemistry and Microbiology) to a real patient encounter, and shows the committee a tested routine for handling a 27-month curriculum.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 12 most common PA school prerequisite courses?

According to PAEA's Curriculum Report 4, which surveyed 234 PA programs, the 12 common prerequisite courses are Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, General Biology, Microbiology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, English Composition/Writing, Genetics, Medical Terminology, General Psychology, and Statistics. The AAPA notes that some programs also require classes like ethics or physics.

How many patient care experience (PCE) hours do I need for PA school?

According to the AAPA, most PA programs require at least 1,000 hours of Healthcare Experience (HCE) or Patient Care Experience (PCE), where 2,000 hours equals about one year of full-time work. Most PA students enter their program with about three years of prior healthcare experience.

Does CNA or medical assistant work count as PCE on CASPA?

CASPA's own guidelines list certified nursing assistant (CNA) and medical assistant under Healthcare Experience (HCE) rather than direct Patient Care Experience (PCE). However, the AAPA states that many individual PA programs overrule CASPA's determination and count CNA and medical assistant hours as PCE, so you should check each program's website.

What is the minimum GPA required for PA school?

In the CASPA Program Directory, PAEA categorizes program GPA minimums into four brackets: 2.5 to 2.99, 3.0 to 3.19, 3.2 and above, and No GPA minimum required.

How long does CASPA take to verify transcripts and coursework?

PAEA states that CASPA verification takes up to four weeks after your application is marked complete. Your application is complete only when you have submitted it and CASPA has received your payment, all official US and English-speaking Canadian transcripts sent directly from each registrar's office, and at least two of your three letters of recommendation.

Why is my CASPA GPA different from my college transcript GPA?

CASPA calculates several GPAs, including science versus non-science GPA, GPA by year, and GPA by subject category, using every completed course from all US and English-speaking Canadian colleges you attended. Because PAEA requires you to enter repeated classes, failed classes, gym classes, ungraded labs, and high school dual-enrollment credits, your CASPA GPA will often differ from your university transcript.